4. Sanskrit Semantics (Study)

Semantics is always an interesting study. To know how words undergo changes in meanings and what processes, psychological, historical or political effect them, is the most rewarding to a sincere researcher. Words have their own stories to tell and they tell them in a charming way. Simply one has to attune one's ears to the tales secretly whispered into them. The tales may not be quite intelligible, a thick crust of our ignorance may have made them quite unfamiliar to us or the running sands of time may have rendered them obsolete and difficult to understand. Yet the words speak and we have to listen to them. The development of meanings of words from their original sense is not always easy to trace, for, in many cases they have wandered off from one state to another till at last they have arrived at a point when they appear to be completely cut off from their original moorings. As in modern Indian languages, so in Sanskrit many words have undergone changes in meanings due to one cause or another. Of these causes Laksana may be said to have exercised a strong influence. Sometimes a primary sense gives rise to a secondary one which in course of time completely supplants the former sense. This is what has happened in the case of such well-known words as pravina, kusala and udara. The word pravina primarily means one who is skilled in playing on the lute. Now, playing on the lute requires proficiency in the art as also practice, abhyasa. From this pravina has developed the secondary sense of 'proficient', which has altogether eclipsed the original meaning, similarly with kusala. The word means capi

primarily one who cuts the kusa grass, kusan latiti. Now the cutting of the kusa blades requires caution. One has to be careful and circumspect lest one should injure one's fingers, te hi kusa vyutpannair adatum sakyah. Hence the secondary meaning of the word kusala is 'expert', 'skilful'. The same is the case with udara . This word primarily means udgata arat (a horse or a bullock), one who needs not the whip (ara), viz., one who understands the implicit intention of the driver and acts accordingly. Thence it comes to mean one who knows the minds of the supplicants as they approach him and gives them gifts without promptings and pleadings from them; hence liberal. Here, too, the primary sense is altogether lost. All these are instances of what is known as nirudhalaksana. Let us look at some other more interesting but less discussed words and the changes in their meanings due to the power of indication. Let us take the word visarada. It means skilled, proficient. How has it developed this sense? Can we dissolve the compound as visista sarada yasya sah. Well, the answer is no. Sarada is the name of the goddess of learning and the goddess cannot be visista or otherwise. One cannot be distinguished from oneself. Moreover, in the Amarakosa the words sarada and visarada are read side by side.' So we need not dissolve the compound as above. Rather, we should dissolve it, as has been done by Ksirasvamin, as: vigatam saradam abhinavatvam asyeti visaradah; one who is no longer a novice; having attained maturity. Hence the secondary sense of that of an expert. Now sarada means a novice. The derivative meaning is saradi bhavah saradah; belonging to the sarad (autumn) season, autumnal. This is the primary sense of the word. In course of time it develops the secondary sense of 'new'. With the advent of the autumn things begin to wear a new look. The sky shines blue, washed as it were of the dark clouds, and the muddy rivers and the rivulets begin to flow with their clear, blue waters. The gloom cast by the rainy season disappears, and everything looks new as it were. The laksanika meaning of the word sarada then is 'new'. In this very sense the word has been used by Panini in the sutra sarade 'nartave.2 The word sarada here means new, fresh. The example 5

Sanskrit Semantics 45 given is rajjusaradam (udakam). This has been explained by Jayaditya as sadyo rajjuddhrtam³ udakam anupahatam rajjusaradam ucyate. This meaning of the word is given in the Amarakosa. From this secondary sense of 'new' (pratyagra), the development of another secondary (or more correctly tertiary) sense of 'novice' is only a step further. One who is new to a thing cannot be proficient in it. Visarada then is what is opposite of sarada, 'not novice', 'mature'. Another interesting word in this chain is krpana. Primarily it means krpyate krpavisayikriyata iti krpanah, one who is pitied. In this sense we come across many uses in literature krpanah phalahetavah, duhita krpanam params. Later, the word develops the sense of a miser. Society in ancient times, as even now, looked down upon the miser. His sight was and still is considered inauspicious in the morning. He was thus a pitiable creature. What has happened in this case is that what was formerly an adjective has become a proper noun. There are many instances of that. Upaguhana is another word. Primarily it means 'to conceal'. Secondarily it has the sense of 'an embrace'. Embrace is represented here as concealing a person in one's self. When two loving souls meet, they clasp each other. Their effort usually is to embrace each other so closely that they may put each other in their own selves. Let there be one and not two. The word upaguhana produces powerful emotions in the mind. The word avarodha for antahpura or harem is suggestive of the times when women were confined to the four walls of the royal palace and had no freedom to move out and mix with the people freely. The primary meaning of the word avarodha is confinement. Later it developed the sense of a harem for it is there that confinement is at its worst. So the word for confinement has come to mean a harem on account of social reasons. Since what is confined becomes hidden, unrecognized, avaruddha comes to mean incognito avaruddho carat partho varsani tridasani ca (MBh.)6 The word vadanya primarily means one who speaks vadati (diyatam) iti vadanyah. The word 'give' was considered to be the

most welcome in ancient times when charity was highly applauded. Dana was considered to be leading to untold merit and there was no dearth of persons in whose homes this word 'give' was always to be heard. The word 'give' was the real word and one who spoke that was called vadanya. As only a generous person could say 'give', so the word vadanya has come to mean liberal. The word yapya is formed from √ya 'to go' in the causal sense with the suffix yat. Literally it means 'one to be sent out'. We have the primary sense in the Gautama Dharma-Sutra." The figurative meaning of this word, however, is 'to be discarded', 'to be ex-communicated'; hence nindya, reproachable, condemnable. In Amara's verse sibika yapyayanam syat the word a yapya has been explained by Ksira as yapyasyasaktasya yanam, the carriage for one who is unable to walk, who is yapya 'to be carried'. Here the word yapya means weak, feeble, one who is to be carried to some place and cannot walk himself. It is interesting to note that here the primary sense of the word is also visible. In the Ayurveda the word yapya means a disease which cannot be perfectly cured but continues to be treated. Such a disease can be continued only and the patient can in no way be immunised. Such diseases are leprosy, phthisis, piles and so on. This meaning of the word yapya may suggest the process through which it has come to mean nindya. A person who is suffering from any fell disease (roga, rujatiti rogah, which corrodes him) and cannot be cured becomes an object of people's reproach. They begin to say how unfortunate this disease-ridden man is! He thus becomes contemptible in their eyes. Similarly any other person who becomes an object of ninda on account of his silliness, misbehaviour or any other thing is also called yapya. As for example, yapyo vaiyakaranah. This is the case of an aupamika aprayoga usage based on similarity. prayog@usage Bhakti primarily means service, loyalty, attachment, devotion. It implies subordination, servility, being the second to some one served. In the sphere of languages it comes to mean upacara, secondary usage; as in bahubhaktivadini brahmanani. Hence we

Sanskrit Semantics 47 have the nominal derivative, bhaktah, which simply means gauna, attributive, secondary. The word susrusa means srotum iccha the desire to listen'. y The secondary meaning of the word is service. One who is anxious to listen to the words of others is susrusu. Now one listens only when one has a respectful attitude towards the person who speaks or when one is prepared to act at his bidding. In him there is the preparedness to act as the other person bids him to. And this is what service means. In the narrower sphere of studies this fact stood out more clearly. There was oral teaching ancient India, a student anxious to learn a lore had to listen to the words as they came from the lips of his teacher. And this he could do only if he served him. Susrusa (desire to listen) thus came to mean service. It is a case of the means being expressed by the word for the end, tadarthyat tacchabdyam. The word samskara is used in different senses in different places in Sanskrit literature, as for example, in Raghuvamsa it means polishing', grammatical purity 10, the impressions produced by the good or bad actions performed by an individual in a pervious life,11 in Kumara-Sambhava it means education and mental health. 12 The impressions are called samskaras because they remain clinging to the soul of the individual who performed the actions like the smell of a thing. It will be seen that the etymological sense of the word samskara underlies all the senses given above. The word is formed from sam-sky-ghan (a). 's' is inserted before kr by the rules samparibhyam karotau bhusane, samavaye ca¹³ after the prepositions sam and pari when it means 'to adorn' or 'to assemble'. The first three senses are directly derivable from the sense 'to adorn'; they are only different phases of adornment. The samskaras may in one sense be said to adorn a man inasmuch as all he does depends upon them, and which, therefore, are of prime importance. Or samskara may mean a collection. And since no other collection is more important than that of good or bad deeds done by a man in previous births as affecting his present life, it may pre-eminently and of all other collections be said to be his samskara.

The word aksata means 'whole rice'. It has been rendered so by translators wherever it occurs. Literally it means 'uninjured' or 'unbruised'. It is only when rice is husked it gets injured. So later the word comes to mean whole grains of unhusked and wellcleaned rice, and accordingly it is used in the plural only. Here is the case of an adjective becoming a proper noun, after the manner of sagarambara, first sea-girt (earth), then the earth. The word tiraskrta properly means what is hidden from view (antarhita) and, therefore, not noticed as, in tarutiraskrta screened by a tree; hence secondarily, what is not noticed even though not hidden. The further development of the meaning is to supersede,⟫> 'to excel'. When one of the two things by its superior excellence or other merits prominently draws attention to itself diverting it from the other, the second thing is called tiraskrta or excelled by the other. Similarly, when a person is left out of account, he feels humiliated, hence tiraskrta comes to mean amanita. The word anika means an army. The gradual development of its meaning is traced by S. P. Pandit 14 thus: anika is originally the face; and meaning then the edge of any sharp weapon it signifies like the Latin Acies, the sharp edge or edge like appearance of an army in march i.e., a row. In classical Sanskrit the word only bears one signification derived from the last, viz., that of multitude or army. The word avarjana in the sense of attracting comes from √vrji kautilye in the sense of tilting or bending. The primary sense of avarjana, therefore, is bending towards (an). The word is found used in this sense in Raghuvamsa 15 and Kumarasambhava.16 In kalasam avarjayati avrj means to tilt and pour out the contents. From this primary sense of physical bending or tilting has developed the secondary sense of attracting, captivating, which is nothing but mental (bending) inclination for a thing. The word upamsu means secret. Literally it means upanivrtta, 2, " I turned back' as they approach it; hence it means a retired or secret upetya nivrtta amsavo smat 'a place from which the rays have place. V

Sanskrit Semantics 49 The words anukula and pratikula literally mean 'following the bank or slope'and 'opposite to the bank', respectively. The secondary meaning of the words, however, is 'agreeable to❜and 'opposed to', for along the bank or the stream movement is easier and vice versa. On account of the natural flow of water one swims on with the least resistance. So it is agreeable to swim along the bank and not against it. Hence the secondary meaning of anukula etc. is 'agreeable'. Another word connected with the stream of water is pratipa which means opposite, opposed. Primarily it means pratigata apo tra, where the flow of water is impeded. Then it comes to mean opposite, contrary, unfavourable. A very common word used for fasting is langhana. Literally it means 'to cross over' or 'to leap over' (the meal-time). In another sense the word is used for injury, e.g., in atapalanghana. The act of fasting leads inevitably to some emaciation of the body. The desire has also to be controlled. So fasting is an injury both physical and mental. Hence the evolution of the sense of injury from the sense of fasting. The word lavanya is generally derived from the word lavana and means lavannasya bhavah 'saltness' or the 'property of salt'. This is its primary sense, and 'beauty', the secondary. K. C. Chatterji has his own conjecture to make. He derives it from the word ramanyaka, an adaptation of ramaniyaka. The word dhvanta is from √dhvana samsabdane 'to shout together'. It means darkness. It seems a far cry from shouting together to darkness. The process of the evolution of one meaning from another is an interesting psychological study. It is very natural to hear people shouting to each other when they are not able to see each other in the pitch dark and so get separated from each other. As they all call out to each other, there is a confused noise all around. Now, as that samsabdana takes place on account of the darkness the word itself has come to mean darkness. This conjecture gets welcome support from a passage in the Rgveda where the words dhvanta and tamah are used side by side 15, dhvantam tamo va dadhvase hata indro mahna purvahutav ¿,

apatyata¹7 being used as an adjective, meaning darkness in which there is shouting, hence thick darkness. The word anisam is dissolved as nasti nisa yasmin tat "that (action) wherein there is no night'. Actually the word nisa does not have the primary sense of the night here. As the night is for rest, the word has here the secondary sense of rest or the cessation of activity. So anisam means restlessly or, in other words, ceaselessly. The primary meaning of the word sakuna is 'bird'. The development of the secondary sense of an omen from sakuna is very interesting. The ancient Indians believed in bird-omens. As they were in direct communion with the natural phenomena all around them, they had an intimate knowledge of the actions and movements of the plants and the birds and the effect, good or bad, they exercised on the human life. The word sakuna is a pointer to the times when our ancestors had an implicit faith in the cries and the movements of the birds as communicators of the future. The word osadhinatha means the Moon. How it has come to mean the moon has been ingeniously brought out by S. P. Pandit in the following words: Properly speaking osadhinam nathah or the king of plants' is the Soma plant which being largely used in sacrifices, naturally came to be regarded as the highest plant, and be styled the king of plants. The key to the fact of osadhipati meaning both the Soma plant and the Moon seems to lie in the word indu. This word is frequently found in the Rgveda, but always in the sense of (1) drops of the Soma juice, and (2) the Soma juice itself. It appears the word indu coming then to signify a globule, or a round little body very naturally became a name of the fuller Moon. Now according to a very common principle that has had such a prominent influence on the development of the Sanskrit vocabulary, viz., that whenever a vocable that signifies two things, has 3

Sanskrit Semantics 51 other synonyms, those other synonyms also become each expressive of the same two things, the word Soma acquired the additional sense of Moon. Then, as is very common in the growth of mythology, the conceptions, attributes etc. connected with the original personified or rather deified concept Soma, viz., that of the plant, became attached to the new concept, viz., that of the Moon. Thus the whole derivation may be put in the following pseudological form. The word indu meant both a drop of the juice of the sacrificial plant, (or the juice itself) and the Moon, a synonym of indu in the first sense is the word soma therefore, soma meant both the plant cap and the Moon. Now, because Soma, the plant was developed into a personification by certain attributes, therefore, Soma, the Moon, acquired also the same attributes. And thus it is that the Moon also came to be described as the King or Lord of the plants. "18 The argument is plausible, not decisive. The very first link in the argument is weak. It is not clear how indu came to signify the moon. The authors of the Worterbuch also confess to the ignorance of the process by which this new signification developed. It is imagined that it first came to mean a little round body, and then the full moon. It is, to say the least, unconvincing. Indeed the contrary would be more natural, more true. The little shining drops of soma (indu) came to be compared to the moon, they were conceived as moon-like, the little moons, the moon being the recognised standard of comparison. We are supported in this contention by a Bramana passage: candram candrena h krinati yat somam hiranyena krinati. Here the soma is called candra (the moon) as gold is. Obviously candra meaning primarily the moon is only a secondary appellation of the soma and gold. As for transference of epithets, we admit it is a common phenomenon in mythology. But transference as such should be

- +j one which we cannot otherwise explain. For example, when Krsna is called madhusudana or kaitabhari, we cannot explain these epithets unless we assume transference of epithets originally belonging to Visnu with whom the former came to be identified. For we know that Lord Krsna never slew the demons Madhu and Kaitabha; it was Visnu who did it long before in the Satyayuga. The present is a doubtful case of transference. The moon is doubtless osadhinatha because she protects the herbs by helping them with moisture. The epithet is easily explained without transference. The primary sense of the word nibhrta seems to be brimful (nitaram bhrtam). We have the use of the word in this sense (cintaya nibhrtah). With human beings it means well-satisfical 7 vide Ramayana bhuktas ca bhoga nibhrtas ca bhrtyah.19 Now! what is brimful makes no sound; (samurnakumbho na karoti sabdam)jhence the meaning silent, quiet. In this sense we have a number of uses in literature ko 'yam bho nibhrtam tapovanam idam gramikaroty ajnaya 20, niskampavrksam nibhrtadvirepham kananam, 21 karannena maya naibhrtyam avalambitam 22. Since all sound is a form of energy produced by motion (technically y vibration)(the absence of sound presupposes the absence of motion; niskampacamarasikha nibhrtordhvakarnah, 2 anibhrtakaresv aksipatsu priyesu, 24 varidhin iva yugantavayavah ksobhayanty anibhrta gurun api 25. Hence the meaning 'silent' develops into motionless. From physical motionlessness and silence it is only a step to mental quietude. Nibhrtatma means santamanah 'of an unruffled mind'. In case of the mind absence of motion could mean absence of vacillation (wavering, swerving, " i.e., firmness, resoluteness; hence the meaning firmly attached, faithful. Later these two meanings, silent and motionless, combine to give us the meaning 'secret' for secrecy implies silence and motionlessness. Nibhrtam iti cintaniyam sighram iti sukaram 26. Now secrecy implies concealment; hence the meaning hidden, out of sight; nabhasa nibhrtenduna.27 Again, from the primary sense of fulness may be traced the sense 'humble', for fulness contributes to heaviness and heaviness to inclination. a tree bends ༩

Sanskrit Semantics 53 under the weight of the fulness of its fruit. A man full of virtues will naturally bend. Playwright Visakhadatta used the word in this sense; pranamanibhrta kulavadhur iva.28 The word vamsa means a bamboo tree. It also means a family. The use of the word in the sense of 'family' seems to rise from the similarity that it (the family) has with the bamboo tree, vamsa iva iti vamsah. A bamboo tree never grows alone. Initially one, in course of time it gets surrounded with others of its variety and there develops a full grove. It is the hope of every Hindu that his family should grow and multiply just as the bamboo tree grows and develops into a cluster. So this happy idea of the growth of the family is at the back of the use of the word vamsa for 'family'. The word jugupsa originally meaning desire to breed cows has had to pass through a rather tortuous path to yield the present sense of aversion. It is from √gup to breed cows etc. The emphasis after some time shifted from cows to breeding. Now/as breeding y requires protection, the stem comes to mean 'to protect'. As protection means keeping a thing away from others, it comes to signify concealment. The process of change does not stop at that. It continues. Now only that thing is usually concealed which repels or turns a man away. It is in this way that the word has come to mean abomination. Primarily, the word vaidya means learned, vidyam adhite veda va 'who studies literature or knows it'. Secondarily, it means 'a physician'. The secondary meaning of the word has become so popular that it has overshadowed the primary one. Of course, the word is used in the sense of a learned man in the epics still. Even there it is not very common. The development of the secondary sense being fairly early, we are forced to the conclusion that peoples' mind must have conceived Ayurveda to be the most important branch of study, the vidya. This was very natural. For the people suffering from a legion ailments, and diseases only that vidya is the proper vidya in the sense that it may give relief to them. Vidya, therefore, comes to mean Ayurveda, the science of medicine and a man proficient in the vidya, the Ayurveda is, therefore, a vaidya. The word kaviraja is also important in this

al a context. It also supports the above conjecture. This means a learned man or 'prince among learned men'. The root iks with up' means 'to ignore'. That this was not the sense in the times of Yaska tad etenopeksitavyam 29 is clear from the sense of lookng closely or examining thoroughly, in which he uses it. It has the sense of nearness. The word has psychological and physical background. A distant thing is not clearly visible. A thing near at hand can be seen clearly and minutely. So far so right. But when the thing comes too near the eye, it can't be seen at all. If somebody were to read a book with pages touching the eyelids, he won't be able to read much and would soon begin to feel that he should give up the attempt. So upeksa comes to mean not seeing which is the same thing as ignoring. its The word abhiyukta means accused. It means 'connected with'. The question is with what? Evidently with an offences 5 dosenabhiyuktah. Abhiyukta is one who is connected or charged with an offence. The word dose (offence) came to be dropped as the ellipsis could be easily supplied mentally, for the word was repeatedly used in the context of crimes. According to Vijnana Bhiksu abhiyukta also means 'to question', to inquire as in Yajnavalkya Smrti.30 Abhiyukta then primarily means questioned, interrogated; hence a suspect, or an accused person. The word dravya also offers an equally interesting study. The grammarians of the Paninian School would derive it from dru 5 (tree) drur iva dravyam, something like a tree. What is striking about a tree? Its parts. They are so distinct; they are all visible to the naked eye. A tree is an aggregate of so many parts; hence it is defined as sakhadiman padarthah. Now all concrete things arey made up of parts after the manner of the tree, they are avayavins, though the parts are not always distinct. Thus being like the tree, (dru), they are called dravya. This is the primary sense of the word. From this general sense follows the specified sense of a substance, substratum of properties, as the Vaisesikas have it. According to it abstract notions such as guna, karma etc. are not

Sanskrit Semantics 55 dravya for they are not the substrata of property or properties (gunasraya). From this specified sense again develops yet another sense of fit or suitable, person or object, a worthy person, one who is possessed of qualities (of head and heart); hence bhavya blessed, promising. Panini notes this meaning in his sutra dravyam ca bhavye.31 That the word dravya in this sense is used in the neuter even when used in apposition with a noun of a different gender unerringly points to the fact that it is only an extended meaning of the term of the Vaisesikas. A person is dravya for he is gunasraya, as a substance is dravyam iva dravyam. REFERENCES 1. III. 3.95. 2. VI. 2.9. 3. Kasika on Panini VI. 2.9. 4. Gita, 2.49 5. Manu. 4.185. 6. Vide Apte's Sanskrit-English Dictionary under, avaruddha. 7. 13.23 8. Ksira on Amara. III.i.6. 9. 3.18 10. 8.74 11. 15.76 12. 1. 20 13. Pan. VI.1.137-8 14. Notes on Raghuvamsa, B. S. Series. 15. 6.15 16. 11.25 17. Rgveda, 10.113.7 18. S. P. Pandit's note on Raghu. 2.73 in his editions (B. S. Series). 19. VI. 109.22. 20. Svapnavasavadatta, Act I. 21. Kumarasambhava, 3.42. 22. Vikramorvasiya, Act III. 23. Sakuntala, 1.8 24. Meghaduta, 68.

. Kirata, 13.66 26. Sakuntala, Act 3 27. Raghu. 8.15 28. Mudraraksasa, Act I 29. Nirukta, 1.6.18. 30. Vide Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary. 31. 5.3.104